Hunter and Fox

By "Philippa" "Ballantine"

In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plains and then to lakes, Talyn is the Hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who destroyed her people. All unknowing, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power. However, she has lost the ability to communicate with it.

Little does the Hunter know that salvation is looking for her, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength. Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret. He sets out to find answers to his path but ends up in the city of Perilous and Fair where he meets Talyn. He knows the danger and yet is drawn to her. Their fates are bound together.

Meanwhile, the Hunter's lost brother Byre is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse placed on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, which will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn. The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781616146245

"Philippa" "Ballantine"

New Zealand born fantasy writer and podcaster Philippa (Pip) Ballantine is the author of the Books of the Order and the Shifted World series. She is also the co-author with her husband Tee Morris of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels. Her awards include an Airship, a Parsec, the Steampunk Chronicle Reader’s Choice, and a Sir Julius Vogel. She currently resides in Manassas, Virginia with her husband, daughter, and a furry clowder of cats.

Reviews for Hunter and Fox

[nancyno5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have read Phillippa Ballintine’s Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences and was eager to begin this series. The two novels are as different as night and day.Hunter and Fox had all the elements in it to be a classic fantasy tome yet Ms. Ballantine could not get it right. Perhaps it was the varying numbers of storylines, characters or maybe she just tried to compress too much into a 340 page book. A considerable amount of information is thrown at the reader. All sorts of information is given yet somehow nothing is really explained. It’s all just fragments of info which, as the reader, you hope to put together but you can’t as some information is just not given. (I found myself reading the first few chapters over and over again because I thought I missed some crucial bit of information).The writing is cryptic and characters are not fully developed even by the end of this novel. I am not sure what my reaction to Talyn the dark is or should be. Is she a victim, martyr or just self-centered. With very little history provided, her character seems incomplete.Ms. Ballantine could have worked more into this story as it had the perfect elements for an epic fantasy novel.

[kgodey_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was pretty excited for Hunter and Fox, since I enjoyed Ballantine’s Books of the Order series.Hundreds of years ago, the Vaerli ruled the world until the Casiah removed their supernatural gifts and rose to power. Now the Vaerli are shunned and persecuted – all except for the feared Talyn, who works for the Casiah as his assassin. Talyn was once proud, but her centuries of service have made her bitter and tortured. Talyn’s brother Byre has spent those centuries mostly just trying to stay alive, but has somehow stumbled his way into a destiny of his own – one that could bring his people’s strength back.Meanwhile, Finnbarr the Fox, a tale-spinner, has had enough of the Casiah’s despotism, and spontaneously decides to cause political unrest by spreading the tale of his mistreatment of the Vaerli. He hatches a plan to publicly shame the Casiah in his palace – and this may or may not have anything to do with his attraction to Talyn, who resides there.There were too many viewpoint characters in this book. In addition to the aforementioned three, there was Pelanor the Blood Witch, Nyree the Vaerli Seer, Finn’s three friends, Kelanim, the Casiah’s consort… I can’t actually remember which of these were viewpoint characters and which of them just appeared a lot, and that’s not really ideal. There were also too many plotlines going on for a 275 page book – the Casiah’s mystery, Talyn’s hunts, Byre’s destiny, Pelanor’s allegiance, Byre and Talyn’s family story, Kelanim’s hatred of Talyn (not sure why that was even necessary?), the rebellion, the history of the world, the various races… I could go on. The book should’ve either been twice the size or some plotlines should’ve been moved to the next book.The characters weren’t that compelling either. Most of the characters have just enough background to make them lose their mystery, but not enough to make you identify with them and understand their actions – it’s pretty frustrating. For instance, the big reveal concerning Finn was uninteresting to me because I didn’t actually know enough about Finn to find it surprising. My favourite character was probably Byre, because he fits the old but good Clueless Fantasy Hero With a Destiny trope.SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!The central romance also didn’t really feel convincing. I think part of it was because of how it was framed and paced – my first impression was that Finn was just intrigued by Talyn because she was a Vaerli and he didn’t actually know her, but it’s revealed towards the end that they actually had a romance and Talyn chose to forget it. I really didn’t get that from the beginning, and if there was foreshadowing, I missed it. I know Finn kept alluding to a previous meeting, but he made it sound like he offended her in some way and didn’t want her to remember.END SPOILERS!I don’t want to make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the book – I did! I loved the Chaoslands, the constantly shifting landscape that occupies the land that the Casiah doesn’t directly exert influence over. The world is pretty intriguing – what is the White Void, how exactly did the Harrowing take place, and who exactly is the Casiah? What are the other races that make up the world, and how did they get affected by the Casiah’s rule?I’ll definitely keep reading the series (the cliffhanger ending doesn’t hurt!), but I hope that it gets it a bit more focused in the next installment.---More reviews at Just a World Away